Killer Instinct: Fire & Ice
by arvindy5
Summary: This is a crossover tale between Killer Instinct and Mortal Kombat in which portals between an Ultratech-dominated Earth and Earthrealm have opened up to create a shared Universe, and a singular war forces unexpected alliances and enemies. I've blended stories from both franchises across the eras but characters have remained intact. Aiming at 20 chapters. R&R, thanks!
1. Chapter 1: Inferno

Black turned to bright orange.

He opened his eyes and was staring at what he thought was the sun. The monk's eyes widened and he reached down to push himself up, not noticing he had crushed a handful of bones in the pile he had been lying on.

There was orange all around. It was the orange of a wild flame. There were levels to it. He realized he was miniscule in comparison to the chasm of fire and shadow he found himself in. He looked around and found no people or structures. _What the_...? And then he realized, that's where he was. Hell.

It stretched out before him. As far as he could see there were looming walls of flame and where there wasn't there was only darkness. He was sitting up on a plateau of glowing rock, unharmed.

The monk looked down, his nearly shattered kora was beside him. Torn marks on his sleek, blue spotted fabric brought back a sudden memory of the large robot slicing at him with the neon claws. He followed the trail of scratches on his torso cloth to a large hole revealing the middle of his chest where his heart is. _Or was._

And then he remembered... _The robot killed me._

He stood up. There were no temples here. No tiger spirit. No shrines. Of course not. The elders always taught him the Gods never came here. He had no weapon, no direction, no hope.

The monk got up and walked to the edge of the plateau, looking for a place to go.

 _I still have a purpose._

As he reached the edge and leaned over he saw another rock, seemingly attached to nothing, just a few feet below him. There were groups of these scattered rocks. There was no ground below this, only a flowng river of fire.

He jumped down.

He landed on the first floating rock, rolled to absorb the fall, then ran off of it and jumped below to the next until he was just above the flaming river. The shore next to it looked smouldering. He was afraid to fall again until he realized he'd be burning already if he had felt the heat of this place. He jumped and landed next to the river. He stretched out his hand and felt nothing over the flowing flame. What should have been burning pain felt like a breeze of cool air.

He dipped his hand in.

Nothing.

It was the sensation of lukewarm water. All his meditation at the Tiger Temple couldn't have prepared him for the pain he should have felt, had there been any. He looked around and saw nothing. No other way out.

 _I'll follow the flowing river. If I don't find a way out Ill find a clue to a way out._

The monk jumped in. and the current of the fire river dragged him along. He was not wet. He was devoid of any pain or uneasiness. Only his head stuck out and he used his arms as guiding oars by pushing off the sides of the river bed. As the river carried him into darkness, he hadn't lost the unease he felt since he woke up. His training had kept him as sharp as ever, even in death.

He couldn't see who it was but he had sensed glimpses of his presence. Another man. A monk, in fact. His energy emanated a story of its own. That he had been dead for hundreds of years...and that he was watching him.


	2. Chapter 2: Firecat

Chapter 2: The Firecat

"Can I at least get your name?" The drunkard asked.

The burn of the vodka going down her throat subsided and she came back to reality.

"How when I dont even know my own name?" she replied.

"What did your parents call you?"

"My parents have been dead for ages. "

"So...no friends? Family?" His interest was peaking. _This could be my night to get lucky,_ he thought.

"Not that you know of." she poured another shot from the bar.

The drunkard moved his hand along her green leather outfit, along her hip, trying to reach behind her. But it was too late. His hand had been snapped in several places before he blinked again. He had bent down in front of her wincing. He looked up and before tears of pain could form in his eyes she elbowed him unconscious. Later he would tell the authorities of her unnatural strength and what he could have sworn were glowing eyes...cat-like.

The woman stood over the drunkard.

 _Had it worked? Had they noticed me yet?_

Then a man stood up and approached her. Sure footed and brave to tread where no other man in that bar would dare to tread after what had just transpired.

He stepped over the motionless body of the drunkard and came up behind her slowly.

She turned in a flash and her hand was caught by the man. She saw him then. Nearly seven feet tall, a mask covering a quarter of his face. The metallic covering brandished a robotic red eye. It was his own. And it was getting hotter in colour.

"Dont do it cutie, Ill burn your heart out." He said with an accent.

"Are you him? Are you the leader?"

The tension in her arm eased and he could feel it. He released and they stood facing each other.

"Ill take you to him. He's been waiting for you."

"They never told me there was an entrance so I figured I'd come here and make as much noise as I could until one of you found me."

"Regardless, Im at the spot nightly honey."

He winked.

The woman rolled her eyes in frustration.

"Im not so bad once you get to know me, baby cakes!" He smirked.

The woman began walking to the exit, and he followed her outside. Past all the stunned patrons still staring.

They exited the bar and came out into a light snowfall at the base of a mountain.

"At least tell me your name?"

"Did you not see what I did to the last guy that asked me that? "

"Not my call, he wants to know we have the right person, okay?"

She thought of the persona she had used to investigate her father's murder...the same one she had used to fight in the tournament, and the name she had told the leader of the camp she would now meet.

Getting impatient, the man said, "And I dont know why you keep calling him our leader. We're all equals where you're going, we're all fighting on the same side. Although this leader fella, he was once a tribal chief you know."

She raised an eyebrow. She scavenged on the streets as a child and saw all manner of gangs but a former soldier and a tribal chief working together?

"First, I want his name."

"Alls I know is, he goes by Thunder."

"Uh huh, and you?"

"The name's Kano."

The woman had heard the name before.

He became impatient again. "Look you're gunna have to tell me your name. I'm not taking you up there without knowing you're the right person! " He pointed to the top of the mountain peak, made almost invisible by the blowing snow.

"Up there?" She pointed to where he had indicated.

"Right."

Then a yellow glow appeared at her feet. Kano took a couple of steps back and his eyes darted up and down at the woman whose eyes were closed. The glow crawled up her legs and she dropped onto all fours, her eyes reopening to reveal bright white. The glow had formed a massive muscular shape around her.

He had seen this before at the tournament, fighters becoming animals and devouring their opponents. He had been exposed to the sorcery before him, and still it was a sight. Before the glow reached the top of her head she looked at him and said, "I go by Black Orchid."

Then it consumed her and he saw that she had transformed into a bright tiger. In a flash she had taken off, all fours kicking up snow as she attacked the side of the mountain, running vertically up the steep cliff to the hidden camp at the summit. Her last hope.


	3. Chapter 3: Skull & Bones

Chapter 3: Skeletons From The Past

As he was dragged along the blazing river, he heard voices ahead. The monk grabbed the inner riverbed and pulled himself to a stop. He got out and ran to the nearest rock. Then he listened. It was voices he had heard. Somehow the conversation he had heard had fused into something else between the river and here, it was more of a single cackling, like a mocking hyena.

He looked around. There was no change between the previous labyrinth before the river and here. It was a web of red hot bedrock and fires that would not go out. There was no exit. As he looked desperately for the source of the sound, and whether he was insane or not, he felt a sudden pressure in his chest.

 _FWOOOOOP._

If he still had breath it would have been taken away. There was a sudden sensation of pressure in his torso, as though he had pulled a muscle. He looked down and what looked like an arrowhead stared back at him, poking out from a bloodless wound in his chest.

"Get over here!"

And with that he was pulled backwards and off his feet for what felt like miles. As he flew back he saw the rock he was behind grow smaller and smaller, his only point of reference to which he'd know how severe his situation was. In mid-air he turned yanked out the arrowhead from the back with both hands, only to find out it belonged to a snake of sorts. The monk blindly summoned the tiger spirit from within and outstretched his legs in different directions for a counter assault. Where he should have landed after being pulled his shadow continued, giving him more momentum and speed, heading towards the perpetrator.

Then he felt his boot impact the other monk who went flying back and fell on a pile of bones.

"Who are you!?"

He finally had a chance to look at him as he lay there. The other ninja that had been following him. He was in a yellow ninja warrior garb tied at the waste over a black leotard and a facemask. He looked into his white, expressionless eyes and he could see no soul staring back. The ninja's eyebrows furrowed and he flipped up to a fighter's stance. Then, in a flash and puff of flame and smoke, he vanished.

The monk turned around looking for him and felt a searing hot punch connect with his jaw. _He teleported, but not using electrical currents to re-materialize like the robot. No, this was sorcery, just like..._

From here there was a flurry of kicks to the stomach and punches to the left and right of his head and chest. He had both arms up but could not connect a clear shot. He could not parry, could not block. Then with a flying kick he was sent reeling over the side of the rock and several feet below into a graveyard of bones. He lay there trying to recollect his thoughts. He saw the ninja monk walk to the edge of the jutting bedrock above and look down at him.

"My name was Hanzo Hasashi. Do you remember me, murderer? Do you remember my clan?"

"I do not know you, or your clan."

The face under the mask became skewed and angry. "Lying Lin Kuei scum!"

Then he heard the cackle again. He began pushing at the bones to gain footing, but the bones themselves began to move. He yelled desperately to reason with the ninja, as this place drained his energy to the point he realized he could not win. "I did not kill them!"

But the bones kept shifting, now stirring in a vortex of crunching and dust. He saw pieces connect, a leg, a foot, a hand, an arm. Then the vortex stopped, and lying in front of him was a skeleton with tattered cloth over his shoulders, but no head. Then, the skeleton began to stand, and at full height he knew what he was looking at... _who_ he was looking at. _The devil on the deep blue sea,_ he thought. Then there was a rolling sound as he saw a skull rolling on itself across the pile of bones toward the body of the skeleton and up its leg, to sit firmly on his head.

"Spinal."

The skeleton's hollowed out eye sockets began to dim and two tiny red bulbs from within illuminate it. "Jago!" Followed up with a cackle. "Aaaaaahahahahahahahah."

The ninja monk jumped down from the ledge to stand beside the skeleton. He brandished a cutlass and presented it to the skeleton. The skeleton took it. "Obliged, nether-monk." Then they both looked at their foe, who stood up in surprise. Jago was outnumbered. "Listen to me."

Spinal responded, "I don't have ears." He cackled again like a hyena. Scorpion stepped forward, "We have no need for your words, just your suffering."

"I am not who you say I am, I do not know why I'm here!" Jago said.

"People arrive in Netherrealm everyday for one reason only, because they are dead. But you...I have been waiting for you for years. Hundreds of years."

Spinal and scorpion poised for attack. Seeing his words were lost, Jago prepared to fight a battle he would lose. He had left his kora behind, it was useless anyhow. The ninja and the skeleton ran towards the monk.

Then suddenly...

Ffffeeewwwmmmmmmmmm.

A beam of blinding white light appeared behind his opponents. Before they could turn around the beam materialized at its base into a humanoid figure, all white and seemingly on fire. Spinal and scorpion looked forward in surprise as the white figure began to regain an orange colour, like a fire but less hot. In a flash it shot out a flaming fire ball towards Scorpion and it exploded on him, sending him flying back thirty feet into the side of a cliff and vanishing into its foundation in a crash of rubble. Spinal looked to where scorpion was and back at the flaming humanoid. He ran with his cutlass held high. The humanoid ran towards him as well but jumped into a diving pose and spun his body, becoming a horizontal tornado of sorts. It ran through the skeletion, rearranging its bones and sending its composition in different directions, before coming back to a vertical halt in front of Jago.

Jago looked at its face. It had no eyes to identify it. Not even a mouth. Before any questions could be asked, the _thing_ reached forward and grabbed Jago, wrapping him in his arms in an unbreakable grip. Then Jago heard its voice, but in his head.

 _Nightwolf! Now!_

And then that beam returned and swallowed them in white light, and suddenly he felt the rush of movement upwards. He supposed this was what an elevator was like, he had never been in one before.


	4. Chapter 4: The Iceman Cometh

Chapter 4: The Iceman Cometh

The data on the monitor at the Newport Research Facility scrolled rapidly upwards in an empty room. It was the primary source of light in a dark office room. A clock on the wall displayed the numbers 2:35. This early in the morning no one was in the facility to heed the warning that had just been triggered by the stratospheric satellites, which were behaving erratically all of a sudden. Luckily for the personnel at Newport, an employee named Albert had synchronized his notifications to alert him if anything crazy went down...and tonight was the night.

Thirty five miles away at his home in Pit Falls, a blaring phone alarm went off. He shot up in bed, confused. _It's still dark, and that sound isn't my morning alarm._ His wife bicycle kicked under the covers and put her pillow over her head.

 _Oh shit._

He turned it off before she had an inkling to inquire why his "alarm" went off early.

 _Can't bother her about it,_ he thought.

He went through a possible list of scenarios of what could have triggered the stratosphere sensors. Could be meteoric debris? A jet pilot looking to get killed? Damaged satellite? No, too unlikely. The thought of what was likely shook him at his core. He picked up his phone and dialed the only person he could trust who so happened to be the same person that lived closest to facility. Albert heard the receiver pick up on the other end after several rings.

"Albert? What the hell?"

"Barry, I'm sorry if I was ever pissed at you for not having an answering machine. Just know that I am so glad you don't have one right now. It's urgent buddy."

"It damn well better be."

"The sky high's just went off, something tripped them. You have to meet me at the office."

"Meteor?"

"No, I've gone through the possibilities. We have to see for ourselves."

"Alright I'll notify Hector to be at-"

"No! Do not tell him. Until we find out what this is we keep it between us. The last thing we want is public knowledge. We need to find out what this airborne phantom is."

"Don't buck me Albert, this better be good. I'll meet you there."

In four minutes Albert was slipping on his leather coat, a pop tart in his mouth and his right foot crushing the edge of his shoe all while fumbling with the keys to his '05 Camaro. In another fifteen minutes he was planning his next four hours, which would be the most hectic hours of his life. Within the hour he arrived at Newport after driving other cars off the road and somehow managing to avoid a police tail. He got off the elevator and walked into the office on the fifth floor where he saw Barry (short, overweight, balding) standing in front of the tracking monitor.

Albert stopped rushing when he noticed Barry's face. "Tell me its space debris Barry, I don't need to hear anything but that...please."

Barry's eyes moved up slowly from the monitor.

"Al...it's taking up half the bloody screen. It's just floating there in the sky hundreds of miles above New York City and, and...I'm the only one that can see it."

"What Barry. What are you seeing?"

Barry swallowed the lump in his throat. "It's a ship."


	5. Chapter 5: The Crossroads of Two Worlds

Chapter 5: The Crossroads of Two Worlds

The Chief was sitting cross legged in front of the fire. He was bare chested with minimal warrior armor on and his tomahawk by his side. It was freezing up here in the Himalayas but the camp and the people in it were not affected by the cold. They could thank his conjuring of the sun God for that. The Chief's eyes were rolled back into his head and his arms were raised at his side. Across the flame, his new apprentice Nightwolf watched him with green eyes for further instructions.

"Now!" said the Chief.

Nightwolf raised his axe in an upward swipe and a green trail of dissipating heat struck the air. Suddenly the flame expanded and consumed them, but did not burn them. Then from the top of it flew out two figures, ten feet into the air, then they slowed at their peak flight and came crashing back down into the camp. One figure was perpetually on fire.

Chief Thunder noticed that the other figure had a strange trail of black ripping out from under him. The black trail was an exact copy of the second figure and went back into the fire and vanished as the two figures landed.

BAM! POOOFFFF!

They kicked up a cloud of settled snow laying outside the circle of heat that was the campfire. The Chief and Nightwolf came out of their transfixed states and stood before them.

"Sorry, haven't mastered landings yet." said Nightwolf.

Cinder replied, "He better have been worth it. I'm blistering hot and even I wasn't used to the temperature down there, Chief."

"That's because you're still alive, and you weren't supposed to be there to begin with." Thunder told him.

Jago lay on the ground, still unconcious. The teleport upward required a lot of energy out of his dead body that they hadn't anticipated. They had sent the hottest person they knew to retrieve him. Literally. Ben Ferris was an Ultratech experiment who escaped and decided to serve up his own plate of revenge to the megacorporation. If anyone was going to bring them down, it would be him.

Thunder looked around at his camp and wondered how long it would be before Kano returned. But just then, they heard the sounds of paws hitting the ground, pacing quickly towards them. _But there are no cats up here, very few animals for that matter, other than what we hunt to eat._

The four of them looked to their left, at the edge of the cliff that overlooked the Tsangpo river and walked slowly towards it. Cinder reflamed and edged towards a blue colour. Nightwolf and Thunder brandished their tomahawks in one hand. They surrounded Jago who was still lying on the rubble by the campfire.

Then the glowing tiger leaped from over the edge and above their heads, spanning the width of the three warriors, and landing on the far side of the camp. It growled low in threat. Cinder, Thunder, and Jago stood where they were.

Thunder looked into the Tiger's eyes. "There is a flower that grows in South America that easily adapts in any environment. Many see it as a flora of death, but most know it as a representation of power. That's what you are, the symbol of darkness and strength. The Kokuran. The Black Orchid."

Slowly the tiger raised backwards on its hind legs and shrunk, it's glow dimming into a soft, pink skin and a female form emerged. "At your requested presence, Chief."

Nightwolf let down his guard. Cinder stared blankly at the beautiful woman in front of him. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

She unhinged a baton from her side holster and threw it at him, hitting him squarely in the forehead.

His flame became engorged and grew blue.

"Listen to me now." Thunder exclaimed in a heightened, authoritative voice.

Everyone turned to him.

Orchid was the first to speak. "How and why did you find me?"

"What I have to say next will answer all your questions."

He sat down again by the fire. Orchid hadn't noticed the body on the ground, unconscious. Her eye was drawn to it and she focused carefully on his face.

"Your reputation that precedes you is a wild one. Stubborn and naive. I knew you wouldn't believe me unless I could show you with your own eyes."

Orchid startled back in shock.

"Impossible. He died."

"We had to go through hell to get your brother back."


	6. Chapter 6: The Shaolin Prisoner

Chapter 6: The Shaolin Prisoner

Scorpion and Spinal retreaded their steps to their fortress of bones deep in the fires of the Netherrealm. The fallen ninja observed his bony acquaintance with a strange fondness. He had been told that he arrived from another dimension, an alternate universe with its history and people, but they seemed so alike.

The pair walked up to the large, bone-comprised abode. Up the stairs of shaped sand with skulls and femurs for a banister. There were ghouls all around, moving in and out of the fortress with aimlessness, waiting for the next invasion of another realm. Their leader, the Emperor, had not given them orders in what seemed like an age. Consequently they were pacing back and forth across this hell awaiting a purpose.

In the back of the fortress, there was a large, barred cage guarded by two red, winged minions of the Netherrealm. The content of the cage was a single human being...or rather, the soul of a single human being. He was unfortunately the collateral of two sorcerer's seeking an amulet of power. He was a Shaolin monk. He was.

"Liu Kang," Scorpion said to the prisoner.

His prisoner was pale, broken, shirtless. Just how he looked when the sorcerer broke his neck.

"Your soul is mine, warrior of Raiden." Scorpion taunted.

"Why am I here. All souls return to the Realm of Light after death. What do you want with me, Scorpion?"

Scorpion signaled to Spinal. "Unluckily for you my partner intercepted your spirit. Unlike me he can freely travel to the Light Realm. I've made a bargain with him. Now I'm making a bargain with you."

"What do I have left to bargain?"

"Your life, Liu Kang. I can return it to you. Or rather, you...to it."

Liu Kang stood up at the prospect. What did this undead warrior need from him that he was willing to save him?

"I will send your soul back to the Light Realm, if you can give me a piece of information I've been seeking since I was banished."

"I have no information about the Lin Kuei."

"Sub-Zero is no longer my concern. I'm seeking something much more important. The location of the dragon spirit."

Liu Kang stood in silence, shocked. "Onaga? No one knows where he is."

Scorpion paced closer to him. "But you do. You and Raiden challenged him in mortal kombat, and you defeated him. You know where he went. If I could travel to the realm of the Elder Gods I would ask Raiden myself. But you're my next best chance."

"How do I know you're a man of your word Scorpion. You're a demon from the Netherrealm. I've fought hundreds of your kind."

Scorpion looked over to Spinal and nodded. Spinal waved his cutlass in a hurricane motion above his head. A portal appeared in front of Liu, inside his cage. Through the portal he could see Earth realm. The temple of the monks where he had trained. Where his ancestor Kung Lao had trained before him. There were monks and free people moving around within the vision.

We know you don't trust us Liu, but we trust you. So go through the portal and enter into Earthrealm. Before we close the portal, tell me what I need to know. Then our deal is done.

"And what do you need with the Dragon Spirit?"

"That is my concern."

"You cannot defeat him. It took 3 Gods and a mortal to banish him."

"I have a question for him, that is all. Like you, I seek resurrection. Maybe I will see you one day again in mortal kombat."

Liu looked at Scorpion with sympathetic eyes. There was a human in that body once. His life was ravaged by murder and destruction and pain. But he knew this was a his chance at freedom. Liu walked through the portal.

He entered into Earthrealm. The first thing he smelled was the air. It was fresh and re-energizing. The warmth of the sun was like a massage all over his body compared to the forever searing heat of the Netherrealm. Liu began to feel changes but could not see for himself what was happening to his body. His lacerations were becoming healed. His rotting flesh and hair were pulled back into his head and sprouted with a vibrant regrowth. His skin began to tan back to a lively colour and his posture became fixed again. That of a warrior in it's prime was standing where the undead man shortly before.

Liu turned around. "Onaga lives in the cave under the Emperor's tower in Outworld."

Scorpion nodded. He then turned to Spinal to close the portal. But the portal did not close.

Liu wanted to turn away and continue towards the temple. Back to his brethren. But something kept him there. Spinal waved his cutlass again and a shrieking sound pierced his ears.

Liu's vision started to fade. His cuts reopened, his legs began to melt into the ground and his jaw fell to the green grass below him. His skin molded and oozed again and his eyes popped. He crumpled into a pile of blood and bones and in seconds the earth had consumed him and there was only a single flower where he stood.

The portal closed. A few minutes went by and young children came to the spot where Liu Kang stood just before. They kicked around a crudely made ball. They had heard stories of the warrior monk that had defeated the Emperor and his sorcerers in the mortal kombat tournament, but then disappeared. Little did they know they were standing atop his earthly tomb.

Liu Kang was never seen again.


End file.
